This application relates to a method for preparing quick ripened blue cheese. More particularly, this invention is directed to a method for preparing a loose curd blue cheese product ripened in the same flexible pouch package in which it is shipped, distributed to retail outlets and delivered to the consumer.
The use of blue cheese in salad dressings and cheese dips has increased the demand for a reasonably priced blue cheese product. As with many other traditional food products, spiraling costs of manufacture has encouraged the use of blue cheese flavors as a substitute for the more expensive aged blue cheese product. While submerged culture fermentations have been developed to provide the popular blue cheese flavor, a more popular blue cheese substitute is the so-called "quick ripened" blue cheese where loose cheese curds are inoculated and cured in a loose curd form which can be incorporated into food preparations. Quick ripened blue cheese cures in approximately two weeks as compared to traditional methods which require a three month to one year cure time. While some sacrifice is made with respect to texture and flavor, quick ripened blue cheese products are an economical substitute for use in salad dressings, sauces and appetizers.
Since the principal advantage offered by use of flavor/food substitutes lies in the economy of their production and use, research efforts continue toward development of time saving/cost saving procedures for production of such products. Such research efforts originally led to the concept of quick ripened loose curd blue cheese itself.
However, the procedure for manufacture of quick ripened blue cheese still necessarily utilizes many of the same time consuming and costly processing/packaging steps involved in the manufacture of the traditionally aged blue cheese product. Its only advantage lies in the shortened time of the aging process. The process for manufacture of quick ripened cheese still involves the inoculation of cheese curds, storing of those curds during the approximately two week curing period under controlled conditions of humidity and temperature and finally, packaging the product in containers suitable for distribution to retailers and ultimately to the consumer.
The present invention is directed to an improvement in the manufacture of a packaged quick ripened blue cheese product. Surprisingly, it has been discovered that the curing process for quick ripened blue cheese can be carried out in a sealed package comprising a semi-permeable polymeric film without compromising flavor development and texture of the quick ripened blue cheese product. Thus, loose raw cheese curds inoculated with the appropriate curing organism can be sealed and ripened in the same package used for delivering the quick ripened product to the consumer. In fact, the cheese curing process can take place during the distribution of the product to retail outlets, assuming the sealed product packages are maintained at a temperature conducive to organism growth during the distribution process. Use of the in-package blue cheese ripening method in accordance with the present invention will result in reduced labor and facilities cost for product production, and it will allow the manufacturer to provide more efficiently a quick ripened blue cheese product to the consumer.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a cost saving method for the production of quick ripened blue cheese.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for producing quick ripened blue cheese by an accelerated in-package ripening process.
It is still a further object of the present invention to identify polymeric film packaging materials for an in-package quick ripened blue cheese product.
Those and other objects of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following detailed description and examples.